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Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2008 > January > 30 > Entry
America’s worst jobs (and the kids who work them)
(Young workers at the counter of an A&W American fast food restaurant in Bellbrook in a 2002 DDN file photo.)
I’ve written here before about how Americans romanticize teen-age jobs and fervently believe they build character and work ethic while several studies suggest after school jobs lower grades and result in bad behavior. No other county expects its teenagers to work the way we do. Elsewhere around the world teens are expected to commit themselves to study in those years and avoid distraction.
I was thinking about this earlier this week when I came across a list of the 10 worst jobs in America. Some examples — restaurant hosts, food concession workers, ticket takers, waiters and life guards.
What do all those jobs have in common? Oh yeah — those are exactly the jobs many of our kids slave away at for hours each week.
As I’ve written before, I am not against jobs for teens. I think the right after school job can have great benefits. But it’s these bad jobs — low pay, bad working conditions and physically exhausting work in some cases — that most teens end up in.
If the choice is between a bad job and no job but more study time, are millions of kids making the wrong choice to work at fast food restaurants and movie theaters?
Permalink | Comments (6) | Categories: Teaching and Learning
Comments
By mario
February 2, 2008 6:45 PM | Link to this
I have been following the comments on this thread and on the previous thread regarding a science high school with interest. On the one hand, we say we want high level, relevant, course work for kids, teachers with high expectations but we apparently we want it all to occur in the five hours (for all subjects) of teacher contact time per day, because we also want kids to have the financial wherewithal to be consumers of leisure goods. If we encourage high school students to work during the school year, what are we saying about the importance of education. I have heard the argument that for some their income is crucial to the family. I have never seen hard numbers on that, but my observation is most of their income goes to fashion, ipods, cell phones and other so-called necessities of teenage life. As an aside, I also find it interesting that when students do not do well, it is the fault of the school district, yet when they are successful, it could not possibly be the result of anything the school district has done. I would like to hear more of are concrete ideas of what we can do as a community or as individuals to make sure that all students have opportunities to be challenged and to develop a love of learning.By Worried DPS Parent
February 1, 2008 5:42 PM | Link to this
My take is that as long as any extra-academic endeavours do not infringe on my children’s academic performances, they’ll have my full support whether they want to do sports or work @ McD’s.By joe_mamma
February 1, 2008 3:11 PM | Link to this
This is a decision best made by the teens and hopefully their parents. Not busy bodies on a message board. To try and generalize and say it should be this way or that way is silly since every single person/family has a different financial and educational situation.By Riverdale Ghost
February 1, 2008 1:14 PM | Link to this
The #1 value of an after school job is that it’s the real world — prom nights, ball games, and even classroom lab experiements are fantasy world. There’s no great loss if the whatever isn’t exactly right. In short, the kid’s not going to “start living” at age 25. The #2 value is that it gives the youngster independent money — in some cases the money is needed, in some cases the independence is needed, and in some cases both are needed. The sad part is first that the jobs are not held as apprenticeship positions and second that they are held to be beneath dignity by the snoot brigade.By Oldprof
February 1, 2008 10:14 AM | Link to this
Those kids HAVE to earn money to pay for their cars! Seriously—if we’re going to address the problems created by after-school work, the type of job is irrelevant—of course the worst jobs in American are held by the least-qualified! And yes, students in other nations are not expected to hold jobs—then again, in Japan they are expected to devote about 90 hours weekly to their studies. If we want to fix the system, we need broader societal change—design cities with pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods and convenient, efficient mass transit to all areas. Then the students (with proper guidance) might opt for shorter hours at the A&W.By Mary
February 1, 2008 7:29 AM | Link to this
I have read about burns and cut off fingers in fast food jobs. I have also read about heat strokes, death, stress fractures, torn ACLs, concussions, and steroids in after school sports -sponsored by the schools with tax dollars. We could get into a debate about which builds more character and cuts more into study time, and which the richer and poorer students do. I just read a report from another source that pointed out college athletes spend over 40 hours a week training. When do they study and sleep? Seems to me education institutions need to clean up their own act when it comes to time for student studies and sleep.